Did Marciano train down to the 180s?

No doubt he could have, he was very trim at the weight he came in at. If he only had to go 12 rounds today no doubt he would be 200+.

 

I don't think it would have been good mass, as his trainers saw him get fat and kept him on a strict diet, and his body ballooned immediately after his retirement. And weightlifting was believed to make you stiff (still is by many). Which I believe is the only way he could turn that mass into some functional muscle. If he trained in modern circumstances he could have put on maybe ten pounds of good mass, but his 200 lbs seemed to be a pretty sloppy one from how his trainers had to stay on him. He apparently would try to smuggle bananas back to his hotel room because he was a big food guy. Most fighters have some sort of eating disorder though. He fought at his best weight in my opinion and more muscle could have made him less viable by slowing him down more

 

What do we mean "naturally" 200 lbs range? Yeah, if he stopped training cardio and kept eating the pasta he'd balloon up over 200+ like he did when he retired, but was his fighting weight 200 lbs? I don't believe so.

Aside from his height he didn't have a particularly massive frame, he had a very short reach of 68" too. Like I just posted in another thread here, could Marciano with 2024 training and supplements be a lean mean 200+ sure, but nobody would encourage a 5'10" guy with a 68" reach to fight at HW anymore, regardless of how jacked they could get.

He'd be a powerful SMW today, perhaps LHW but even Bertibiev is considered a smaller LHW today.

 

I’ve read he was naturally around 210 walk around weight maybe higher when older. He was a center in hs football and a catcher in baseball. I’ve heard estimates as high as 220 but I believe that was from his nephews mouth. In books n articles I’ve read he was closer to the 210 range. Either way he def trained down

 

Picturing David Tua shaking his head

 

Come on, Tua is a Samoan they are just built dense. I wouldn't be surprised if Tua was already over 200 lbs at 12. The only thing they have in common is height.

I'll get the Mike Tyson comparison out of the way too. You can look at someone's body and tell if they are naturally built to be over 200 lbs in an athletic capacity.

Rocky just didn't have that, that's not an insult, it's just what it is. He'd have probably admitted himself he wouldn't have been at his best trying to fight that heavy, hell nobody was stopping him if he really did want to.

 

Re: "Did Marciano train down to the 180s?"
I vote YES, based on statements from people I knew, and respected, who knew Rocky.

 

Tua was 201 pounds for his first fight. That’s with modern training and food. Let’s not pretend this is some stretch. They were the same dimensions and if left to the same conditions prob pretty similar in everything. I think Tua would have been better if he stayed low 200s. He tried to fight like Marciano but couldn’t get low like him. Had the lean down but was to fat in the missle

 

He was also playing baseball at a high level 200 plus. This not athletic thing is some odd made up nonsense. He was the best athlete in the neighborhood from all accounts

 

THIS.

 

Don't get it twisted, Marciano was athletic, he was a beat, but there is no need to exaggerate things about him, which I notice a lot of his fans tend to do. Ok, he was 200 lbs+ playing minor league baseball, he never fought at that weight in boxing. If he or his trainers believed he'd have benefited from fighting at 200 lbs they would have done so, but they didn't that's just facts.

Marciano was a sub 200 lbs heavyweight, that's ok.

 

In the four years from 1951 to 1955, photographs and films appear to show a rapidly aging body. Helped along by his hair loss, he looks like a much older man at the end of his rather short career. His weight hadn't changed but his muscles weren't as defined. By '55 I believe he was nearly shot. This is why Patterson would have been a dangerous opponent, and I think Marciano knew it. He prided himself on being undefeated. I believe this is one reason he retired after beating Moore.

 

I get what u think. But the post is about did he train down. Which he did. Also keep in mind every fighter fighting then was lighter. Weight training started getting popular progressively in the 60s on. Then steroids in the 80s (may have even started late 70s by some accounts) really blew athletes up. So a guy like Marciano who quickly got over 260 after retiring was a naturally big boy. He trained down to 215 for the computer fight w Ali. W modern weight lifting he would be 200 plus and affective no problem. If he got to big like Tua did later in his career he would not be as affecting as his style called for being able to bend at the waiste

 

Tua was about 17? when he was KO’d by Felix Savon.

David looked that much smaller than what he was later to become. It would be interesting to know Tua’s exact weight for that fight. He basically looked svelte.

Savon certainly caught him with a beautiful right hand - but there was also a head clash involved - and it appeared Tua dropped immediately from the following head clash and not so much from the preceding punch - perhaps hurt by the combination of the two.